The Seven Dimensions of Culture

THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE A DEFINITION

What are the Seven Dimensions of Culture?

Trompenaars Hampden-Turner (THT) is a researchdriven consulting firm that was founded 20 years ago

by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner.

THT starts from culture, because culture provides the context within which people in organizations interact with one another and the world surrounding them. We work with all business implications of culture. We have identified seven dimensions on which the values of diverse cultures vary.

Fons Trompenaars

We make the business and people aspects of culture tangible and measurable using a wide range of wellproven instruments underpinned by our extensive research.

Charles Hampden-Turner

The Trompenaars Hampden-Turner Seven Dimensions of Culture

1. Universalism – Particularism

The dimension universalism-particularism concerns the standards by which relationships are measured. Universalist societies tend to feel that general rules and obligations are a strong source of moral reference. Universalists are inclined to follow the rules - even when friends are involved - and look for "the one best way" of dealing equally and fairly with all cases. They assume that their standards are the right standards, and they attempt to change the attitudes of others to match theirs.

Particularist societies are those in which particular circumstances are more important than rules. Bonds of particular relationships (family, friends) are stronger than any abstract rules. Response to a situation may change according to the circumstances and the people involved. Particularists often argue that “it all depends�.

2. Individualism – Communitarianism

The dimension individualism versus communitarianism is about the conflict between an individual's desire and the interests of the group he belongs to. Do people primarily regard themselves as individuals or as part of a group?

In a predominantly individualistic culture, people are expected to make their own decisions and to only take care of themselves and their immediate family. Such societies assume that quality of life results from personal freedom and individual development. Decisions are often made on the spot, without consultation, and deadlocks may be resolved by voting.

In contrast to this, members of a predominantly communitarian society are firmly integrated into groups which provide help and protection in exchange for a strong sense of loyalty. In such cases, people believe that an individual's quality of life improves when he takes care of his or her fellow man. The group comes before the individual, and people are mainly oriented towards common goals and objectives.

Negotiation is often carried out by teams, who may withdraw in order to consult with reference groups. Discussion is used to reach consensus.

Often, individualism is seen as typical of modern society, whereas communitarianism is associated with traditional societies. However, a modern society such as Japan has a strong communitarian orientation, which forces one to question this convention.

3. Specific – Diffuse

Generally, people from specifically oriented cultures begin by looking at each element of a situation. They analyze the elements separately, then put them back together again - viewing the whole is the sum of its parts. Specifically oriented individuals concentrate on hard facts. People from diffusely oriented cultures see each element in the perspective of the complete picture. All elements are related to each other. The elements are synthesized into a whole which is more than simply the sum of its parts.

This dimension also concerns our degree of involvement in relationships.

Specifically oriented individuals engage others in specific areas of life, affecting single levels of personality. In specifically oriented cultures, a manager separates the task relationship with a subordinate from the private sphere. Diffusely oriented individuals engage others diffusely in multiple areas of life, affecting several levels of personality at the same time. In diffusely oriented countries, every life space and every level of personality tends to be interwoven.

4. Neutral – Affective

This dimension focuses on the degree to which people express emotions, and the interplay between reason and emotion in human relationships. Every culture has strong norms about how readily emotions should be revealed. In cultures high on affectivity, people freely express their emotions: they attempt to find immediate outlets for their feelings. In emotionally neutral cultures, one carefully controls emotions and is reluctant to show feelings. Reason dominates one's interaction with others. In a neutrally oriented culture, people are taught that it is incorrect to overtly show feelings. In an affectively oriented culture, it is accepted to show one's feelings spontaneously.

5. Achievement – Ascription

The dimension achievement-ascription focuses on how personal status is assigned.

While some societies accord status to people on the basis of their performance, others attribute it to them by virtue of age, class, gender, education, etcetera. While achieved status refers to action and what you do, ascribed status refers to being and who you are.

6. Time Orientation

The time orientation dimension has two aspects: the relative importance cultures give to the past, present, and future, and their approach to structuring time.

If a culture is predominantly oriented towards the past, the future is often seen as a repetition of past experiences. In a culture predominantly oriented towards the present, day-by-day experiences tend to direct people's lives. In a future-oriented culture, most human activities are directed toward future prospects. In this case, the past is not considered to be vitally significant to the future.

Sequentialism and synchronism form the different approaches to structuring time.

People who structure time sequentially view time as a series of passing events.

They tend to do one thing at a time, and prefer planning and keeping to plans once they have been made. Time commitments are taken seriously and staying on schedule is a must. People structuring time synchronically view past, present, and future as being interrelated. They usually do several things at once. Time commitments are desirable but are not absolute and plans are easily changed.

7.Internal – External

The internal versus external control dimension concerns the meaning people assign to their environment. People who have an internally controlled mechanistic (or mechanistic) view of nature - a belief that one can dominate nature - usually view themselves as the point of departure for determining the right action. In contrast to this, cultures with an externally controlled (or organic) view of nature which assumes that man is controlled by nature - orient their actions towards others. They focus on the environment rather than on themselves.

These concepts are highly abstract terms, deliberately so because we seek to include a large number of “family resemblances” beneath each bifurcation. Let us now consider these “families” in business terms.